Thomas Leverton
Thomas Leverton (c.1743 – 23 September 1824) was an English architect.
Life
He was born the son of builder Lancelot Leverton in Waltham Abbey, Essex. Having learned his father's trade he acquired the skills of architecture with the help of patrons. In 1771 he exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time, continuing to do so until 1803.
He built several town houses and villas in London and the country, such as the Etruscan hall at Watton Wood Hall (now Woodhall Park), Hertfordshire, (built 1777–82 for Sir Thomas Rumbold), and whilst he may not have earned the credit he is sometimes given for designing Bedford Square in London he did at least design some of the interiors, including No 13 for his own benefit, moving in in 1795. His chief skill lay in the innovatory design of small-scale interiors.
In 1780 he designed Plaistow Lodge (now Quernmore School) for Peter Thellusson at Bromley, Kent in a style suggestive of Adams. In 1803 the domed refit of Scampston Hall near Malton, Yorkshire reflected the work of Wyatt. Unfortunately for his reputation, however, some of his buildings have been demolished, such as Woodford Hall in Essex (built 1775 for William Hunt) and Riddlesworth Hall in Norfolk (built 1792 for Silvanus Bevan III).
Leverton was surveyor to the Grocers' Company, for which he built a new hall, completed in 1802;[1] the theatres royal in London and the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company, London, for which he built offices in Lombard Street in about 1787 and a fire engine house at Charing Cross (both later demolished). He took over as architect at the Department of Land Revenue after the retirement of John Marquand.
He was a Justice of the Peace (JP) for Westminster, Middlesex, Surrey and Kent.
He died in 1824 and was buried at Waltham Abbey. He had married twice; secondly to Rebecca Craven of Blackheath but his only son predeceased him. His niece married a pupil, James Donaldson, and was the mother of Thomas Leverton Donaldson, Professor of Architecture at London University.
The Thomas Leverton Charity, founded by money left in Leverton's will, is intended to aid deserving women in distress, preferably widows resident in the united parishes of St Giles and St George. It has since been amalgamated into the St Giles-in-the-Fields and Bloomsbury United Charity.[2]
Works
- Woodford Hall in Essex (built 1775 for William Hunt)
- Etruscan hall at Watton Wood Hall (now Woodhall Park), Hertfordshire, (built 1777–82 for Sir Thomas Rumbold)
- Triumphal Arch, Parlington Hall, Aberford, Yorkshire (built c.1783 for Thomas Gascoigne)
- Riddlesworth Hall School in Norfolk (built 1792 for Silvanus Bevan III)
- Scampston Hall, Yorkshire remodelling (1803 for William Thomas St Quintin)
- Gordon House, Chelsea (built 1809 for Lieutenant Colonel J Willoughby Gordon)
References
- ↑ Heath, John Benjamin (1854). Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London. London: C. Whittingham. pp. 34–5.
- ↑ "UCL Bloomsbury Project". Retrieved 2013-02-21.
"Leverton, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16537. (subscription or UK public library membership required)